The present invention concerns the field of packaging for a flower bouquet, and, more precisely, of packages with a store of water.
In general, such packaging devices for flower bouquets include a packaging film, watertight, made of a plastic material designed to constitute a store of water, and a support element for reinforcement, very often made of a rigid or semi-rigid plastic material designed to give its shape to the packaging and to allow the packaging to be held stable on a horizontal surface. Once the packaging is shaped, the watertight film wrapped on the support element, and the store of water made up, a tie allows the foil to be tied on the support, holding the stems of the bouquet.
The positioning of such a packaging requires several more or less time-consuming operations to be accomplished, that is, the positioning of the support, the positioning of the film, a step shaping the foil on the support, filling the foil with water, and inserting the bouquet stems, and then tying the packaging thus formed. Quite often, the operator has to make use of a specific work station for these operations, such as, for example, that disclosed in the document EP 1944239A1, or similar.
In order to remedy these drawbacks, the document FR 2 946 025 proposes a packaging that includes, on the one hand, a first part made up of two flexible foils, one decorative and the other watertight, combined with a flexible frame made of plastic in the shape of a star including several deformable branches and, on the other hand, a rigid shaper attached to the base of the flexible frame, designed to interact with the branches and to give its final shape to the packaging. A sheath is disposed on the periphery of the watertight foil in such a way as to have a single string pass through, which operates together with the end of the branches to straighten them and shape the packaging.
Such a device allows the packaging to be shaped by attaching the shaper to the flexible frame, and then exerting a pulling action on the string. Pulling on the string allows the branches of the frame to be brought together until they stop at the arms of the shaper and thus form the packaging.
Such a device has one drawback, however, in wasting storage space, several distinct parts (the flexible frame and the shaper) being required in order to accomplish the packaging. It is not possible to obtain the final shape of the packaging using only the string and the flexible frame without the presence of the shaper. The shaper is thus an essential element of the device which, due to its rigidity and its bulkiness, will not facilitate storage of the device.
Such a device always necessitates the execution of several operations, which involves a loss of time.
Such a device thus represents a non-negligible cost due to the necessity of having several parts to store and assemble.